Manassas, Va. - 7 posts

Manassas is a small, yet growing city in Virginia that has experienced a lot of change over the years. This makes Hispanics the largest represented minority in the predominantly white city. Manassas is a small with a population around 30 thousand, but the Hispanic community has doubled in the last decade alone, and it now makes up a third of the population. Thus, as the Hispanic influence has grown, many services and businesses have begun to cater to Spanish speakers.

Osvaldo Mercado sat in his glass office in Union Hispana Multi-services LLC, and repeatedly asked me “Why are we not having this conversation in Spanish?” To which I would reply that my Spanish skills are not very strong, and that I would be more comfortable doing the interview in English.

Mercado was clearly disappointed as he shook his head and explained, “Americans don’t realize that Spanish will soon be the No. 1 language. We all need to learn Spanish to co-exist.”

According to the 2014 Manassas Key Demographics, almost 30 percent of all Manassas residents speak Spanish; however, over 62 percent of residents only speak English. With more than 37 million speakers, the Pew Research Center says that Spanish is by far the most spoken non-English language in the U.S. today among people 5 and up. It is also one of the fastest-growing languages with the number of speakers up 233 percent since just 1980.

Chris Medina (right) came to Manassas a couple of years ago, as part of a demographic shift that dramatically increased the area’s Latino population over 30 percent in the last couple of years.

Chris Medina has now established her own small business, C&T that sells locally grown seasonal vegetables, and is a well-known vendor in the Greater Manassas Farmers Market.

For many, the city of Manassas is not just a municipality on the map of the Prince William County in Northern Virginia. The citizens of “Old Town,” as it is described, have grown as a community after years of tension surrounding immigration issues in the area.

David Jedlicka and his son Bradley dig holes for the plants they just bought.

For many neighborhoods in Manassas, a sprawling bedroom community of Washington, D.C., a strong sense of community is not the first thing to come to mind. For the Point of Woodsneighborhood, near the east of the city, however, the story is a little different.

The three communities of Point of Woods are comprised of townhomes, which, last year, received the new addition of a 26-plot community garden. The garden has become a unifying force for the neighborhood, something Kisha Wilson-Sogunro, neighborhood services manager for Manassas, said is much needed.

“This garden is so important for the community in Point of Woods,” she said. “It has done so many great things, and who doesn’t love gardening and fresh veggies?”

The garden was started by 1 By Youth, a community revitalization cooperative, last year in order to improve the neighborhood and bring the community together.

Pamala Weinlein, a resident of Point of Woods said the project was a huge help and a great initiative, something that may not have been accomplished without the help of 1 By Youth.

“1 By Youth came out here and they dug the whole garden up for us. And with the help of some of the local businesses, they plotted it out, pulled out a bunch of rocks, sectioned it off, put down the mulch path and set all the plots up for everyone.”

Nikki Ebert, president of the Point of Woods neighborhoods one and two, says the effort to join the community has paid off in a big way.

“It has been great. A lot of friendships have been made as a result of the garden,” she said. “We are learning from each other all the time and we all keep an eye out for each others plots. I wouldn’t know any of them if I weren’t for the garden.”

That sense of community has prompted more families to take part in the community garden. All but two of the plots are sold for this year, a large increase from last year.

“We started out last year and we had a lot of plots that weren’t sold. This year, I think we only have two plots left,” Weinlein said. “Everyone suddenly wanted one.”

Ebert says the increase in gardeners has helped build that community and that everyone is able to learn from one another in a more practical, comfortable way.

“We have people from all different backgrounds and it proves that people can get along no matter where you come from. We all have something to learn from each other,” she said. “It has also helped bring the community together because people like to just come a look at the garden and talk to us. I think it’s made a huge difference in our neighborhood.”

Sogunro says the garden is doing an important job of making people aware of the other cultures in one neighborhood.

“It’s important for people to know that everyone doesn’t do everything like you. And that’s okay,” she said. “We need to be sensitive to other cultures.”

Homeowners like Weinlein say they are happy to be meeting new people and growing their community.

Pamala Weinlein says she enjoys being in the garden as much as possible.

“There’s a lot of Hispanic families that are coming out and joining in too, which is great,” she said. “For a lot of them it’s their first year coming out and being a part of it. Last year, I think there was a family that grew peanuts. That was really cool. I’ve never seen anybody grow peanuts in such a small space before.”

Some of the items being planted last year surprised some of the other gardeners, as well.

“Last year we had somebody plant quinoa. It’s this giant purple plant and no one had any idea what it was,” Weinlein said. “This year it’s pretty much the standard stuff. I’m planting potatoes for the first time.”

Though the plots are just getting started for this growing season due to the frost that killed some plants in March, families are eager to see their hard work pay off. Tammy Brasfield and her family said they are looking forward to seeing their first crop of strawberries grow since they lost their tomatoes to frost last month.

Tammy Bansfield’s daughters Caylee and Carly help plant on their garden plot.

The gardens have become a haven for families with children who relish the opportunity to be able to spend time with one another.

David Jedlicka was proud to show off the plot he and his son have for the year. “This is actually his plot,” Jedlicka said. “We’re growing a little bit of everything in here.”

His son Bradley said he enjoys learning from his dad who does landscaping part-time.

Ebert says family involvement is key and, while she understands families are struggling, she says parents need to take a more active role in getting their kids involved in the neighborhood.

“I also think parents need to be more involved with their children. Help get them involved with the community,” she said. “A lot of the kids seem to really want to help, they just need guidance. This would help keep them out of trouble. Perhaps if there were some free activities it would help. I know a lot of parents are just doing their best to keep a roof over their heads.”

She says that involvement is not the only issue that Point of Woods is trying to overcome. Pride of ownership in the neighborhood is an issue she says needs to be resolved. A trash problem has caused a great deal of friction among members of the neighborhood.

“A lot of people simply don’t care what the rules are and I think a lot of them tend to be renters. Some say that it’s a cultural thing for the Hispanic members of our community, but regardless we need to find a way to stop it. I think we all need to take pride in our homes whether we rent or not,” Ebert said.

Sogunro says that this garden is confronting one of the major issues she sees in Manassas today, the language barrier.

In an effort to make sure the entire community was involved, newsletters were printed in English and Spanish—an effort that was suspended because of printing costs and time limitations.

“We did that on our own to make sure everyone was reading them. Then we decided to make them available in Spanish upon request so we could save money on paper and printing. I think when we do parking passes this year we may ask if people need the newsletter in Spanish. I think it helped having it in Spanish,” she said.

Regardless of the struggles, Ebert says, she is grateful for the community garden and for the area she lives in.

“I think Manassas is great place to live and raise a family. I really do love living here. Especially since last year when we started the garden…there’s really starting to be a sense of community. As far as Point of Woods, we’re getting there. We still need some TLC, but I think we’re definitely moving in the right direction.”

This is something that was echoed by homeowners in Point of Woods, as well.

“Around here if we don’t know you,” Weinlein said, “we’ll just come up and say hi.”

When undocumented workers Miguel and Norma first migrated from Monterrey, Mexico, to the United States with their two children in 2003, their only experiences with prenatal care and birthing was in hospitals.

Now, as the couple, whose last names have been omitted to because of their immigration status, look toward welcoming twins in June, they find themselves in unfamiliar territory, and not just because they don’t speak English.

Miguel and Norma are part of a growing movement in the country to rely on midwives for health care during and after pregnancy and childbirth.

Despite cultural and economic differences though, the pair seem split in their approach to the new experience.

The center, which opened on Aug. 3, 2009, is headed by Certified Nurse Midwives Sheila Mathis and Kathleen McClelland. Mathis and her husband, Derrick, founded the operation after she noticed that a portion of her community – namely, minority females – were not receiving the health care it deserved, she said.

“Predominantly, the women that we serve are women who would have a hard time finding help elsewhere,” McClelland said. “Not even the health department was providing care for women with Medicaid.”

Since the facility opened, it has been operating steadily at maximum capacity levels for its small staff, mostly because of word-of-mouth from patients, said Erika Hernandez, a medical assistant and Spanish-English translator.

McClelland said about half of the clients speak only Spanish.

“A lot of them come in scared because they don’t know if there’s going to be someone who speaks their language … but since I’m here they feel more comfortable,” Hernandez said.

Norma agreed. She said she’s nervous about being in the hospital, without the translations system she’s used to.

The center currently has a working relationship with Prince William Hospital, located across the street, which requires the midwives’ patients give birth at the hospital.

But the midwives are not permitted to accompany their patients during the birthing process.

The center’s primary contact in the hospital, Theresa Post, said she was not authorized to comment about the situation, and other hospital officials did not return phone calls.

Mathis and McClelland are in the process of seeking out special privileges to allow them to stay with their clients throughout the entire birth. So far, McClelland said, the hospital has not given any hint toward that being a possibility.

When she spoke with the Department of Medical Credentialing at the hospital, McClelland said they told her that the hospital doesn’t give midwives credentials. But they do give advanced nurses special credentials in certain situations, “so they don’t really know what to do with us yet,” she said.

The situation is not an anomaly. Across America, opinions are divided regarding midwives’ role during births.

Susan Hodges, president of Citizens for Midwifery, a non-profit organization seeking to make midwife services universally available to all childbearing women, said the medical community is the problem.

“Hospitals are businesses … normal labor is unpredictable and hospitals can’t organize staff and resources in a cost-efficient manner to deal with it,” she said.

McClelland has experienced first-hand the fallout of this debate. About 10 years ago, she was employed by a major hospital as one of four certified nurse midwives on staff. They worked nights, weekends and holidays for almost four years, she said, when the obstetricians were off duty. Then, the hospital laid them off with just a couple of weeks’ notice.

“I guess they felt they could save money by having private [obstetricians] take turns with our shifts … if there was another reason, it wasn’t made known to us,” McClelland said.

Hodges said that she has heard from many nurses over the years who admit that when working in a labor and delivery unit, it is not uncommon to be told that their job is to get as many women as possible to have an epidural.

Midwives promote the exact opposite.

“We seek to make women central in the care we provide … they make the decisions about their needs,” Mathis said.

When in labor then, midwives encourage mothers to deliver naturally, meaning no drugs and no surgery.

“Left to their own ability to labor, women deliver their babies just fine … that doesn’t mean they should deliver unattended; even other countries have people go to homes to help monitor births,” Mathis said.

So, Hodges, said, the major question in the debate should be who decides what options mothers have and how those decisions are made.

“Right now, there’s no accountability,” she said.

As an example, Hodges said it is extremely difficult for midwives in the state of New York, where she is based, to practice home births right now.

“It’s a little bit like forcing Ford to get permission from General Motors to open a showroom,” she said.

To give expectant mothers a better idea about the issues in the midwife vs. doctor debate for childbirth, Mathis and McClelland recommend watching the documentary, “The Business of Being Born.” In the film, executive producer Ricki Lake calls the hospital birth process “a snowball effect” of drug administration, which can create a confusing and frightening experience, rather than the intimate and deep encounter she believes is meant to occur naturally.

Women in the film agree that they were “not allowed” to have long labor sessions in the hospital, which is where labor-inducing drugs like pitocin come in. Often, once pitocin in administered, the patients are more likely to opt for an epidural because of the pain produced from the intensified contractions. But epidurals can counter the effect of pitocin, slowing down the labor process. As the cycle of drugs carries on, the baby can begin to suffer, forcing the mother to deliver via emergency cesarean section.

As a result, the United States ranks poorly in maternal and perinatal mortality rates, the rates at which mothers and babies, respectively, die during the birth process.

Often, when patients first arrive to the clinic, they rely on Hernandez to communicate their needs for them to the midwives, she said. But, in the hospital, their experience can be rushed and less personal.

“The fact that our hospitals are businesses can really create a conflict of interest,” Hodges said. “Organized medicine has long taken a stand against any form of medicine by a midwife without supervision because they believe it’s more dangerous. They don’t have studies or reports to back it up, they just put that viewpoint out there.”

Mathis said many women go through with surgery because of fear related to the birth process. ”With C-sections they can schedule them, it’s a short procedure, so they feel it’s a better option,.”

By disallowing midwives to accompany their patients in the delivery room, the fear is that the birthing experience becomes mush harsher and options are not fully discussed, McClelland said.

Even if they were granted access to the delivery rooms though, the certified nurse midwives would still need a doctor to agree to supervise the births.

Some hospitals might opt to only allow doctors to administer the births though, because of the predominant preference in the medical community for doctors, Hodges said.

“These positions are not based on any scientific evidence … there’s this attitude that ‘well, we went to school for 89 years …’ but that doesn’t mean they have the experience,” Hodges said.

A hospital receives the same amount of insurance payment regardless of how long it takes a patient to deliver their baby, she said. That creates an incentive to get as many patients through the process in as little time as possible, and the added services, drugs and surgeries, can increase costs, she said.

“I’m not accusing any hospital of deliberately adding on services … but the fact of the matter is there’s an incentive,” Hodges said.

“It’s cheaper for a hospital to have a midwife on staff because they’ll encourage [patients] to go natural, and recover at home. That takes the burden off of the nursing staff,” Hernandez said.

While Mathis and McClelland would love to be able to accompany their patients for that reason and for their patients’ comfort, there seem to be a lot of issues to work.

“We haven’t gotten as far as really pressing the point … we’re trying to first meet the basic needs of our patients,” McClelland.

More than health care

If Mathis and McClelland are unable to gain the credential privileges they hope for, they’re also looking at the possibility of starting a birthing center, to continue their practice without the rules and constraints of the hospital, McClelland said.

“I honestly think if we opened a birthing center it would scare the pants off the hospital … about 99 percent of our patients would just skip the hospital,” Hernandez said.

But, she also hinted that if Mathis and McClelland can get their access permissions for the labor and delivery unit, the idea of a birthing center might fade away a little bit.

“If they’re nice and friendly and let [Mathis and McClelland] in there, we might opt for hospital births,” Hernandez said.

The birthing center would be a viable extension for the clinic, which operates more as a care center for women, at discounted rates.

“We have a lot of walk-ins,” said Janika Ellis, an office assistant at the clinic. “In the end, I think they realize the cost difference … we had a lot of patients looking at the costs like ‘oh my gosh, one of [another doctor’s office’s] labs is $1,500,’ and our whole cost is $2,000.”

The fees for the clinic include pregnancy check-ups from the time the woman finds out she’s pregnant, but many women come to the clinic to start their care considerably late in their pregnancies.

“The reason isn’t because they don’t want prenatal [care], it’s because of the system,” Hernandez said, referring to the costs and insurance issues that many undocumented workers face with health care.

“They just don’t know that help is out there … you don’t want patients to forgo exams, so why make them a-la-carte?” she said.

Since the clinic recently acquired non-profit status, so it can receive grants — like the one it received from March of Dimes to begin offering Centering Pregnancy, a new model prenatal care in a group setting — the staff hopes that a birthing center could also become a reality.

“The sense of community has been broken in this area … so many of our women come from transient families, so their immediate family members are not available to support them,” Mathis said.

A birthing center, in combination with the centering pregnancy classes, could help restore that supportive community aspect not only between the mothers but also between the patients and their care providers.

“We know that none of us will get rich, but we want to provide the best care … this [clinic] belongs to the community,” Mathis said.

Hodges said there is often a significant overlap between a birth center and a home birth, so patients might feel more comfortable giving birth in a center than in a hospital.

In the past, licensed birth centers could accept Medicaid patients, but Medicaid would not pay the facility fee related to the birthing center. It did pay a facility fee to hospitals for their births. As a result, it was much more difficult for birthing centers to accept Medicaid patients, who tend to be low-income patients, Hodges said.

With the new health care bill though, Medicaid is required to provide a facility fee for birthing centers. And nurse midwives will make the same amount of money that obstetrician-gynecologists make.

“I had a home birth with a midwife who had a legal service in the state of New York, but insurance wouldn’t cover it,” Hodges said.

Now, since insurance would cover more of the cost involved with birthing centers, and since birthing centers can provide a comparable experience to a home birth, there may be more incentive for women to opt for a center instead of a hospital.

“The quality of prenatal care outside of a hospital is superior and is the most important factor to preventing problems during birth,” Hodges said. “Hospitals’ nurses have high case loads so they can’t give the same care.”

When it comes down to it, Hodges said, it’s important for women to do their homework and figure out what kind of care they’ll get from different providers.

The whole congregation stands at St. Francis of Assisi church to watch as Father John Heffernan baptizes a young girl, probably no older than 2. She is clad in an all-white dress with ruffles down the front. Her dad holds her in his arms as Father Heffernan dips a shallow bowl into a basin of water and gently pours it over the girl’s head.

In the name of Father. In the name of the Son. In the name of the Holy Spirit.

This baptism marked a joyous occasion for the more than 200 Spanish-speaking parishioners at St. Francis in Woodbridge, Va. But for others in Prince William County, this scene represents a stark change in the community’s identity.

Manassas, Virginia is located outside the Beltway, just a little more than 30 miles from Washington, D.C. In the last 20 years, the population of the city and the surrounding area of Prince William County has boomed as this once semi-rural community has become absorbed into the sprawl of Northern Virginia. According to recent census data, Prince William County is the third largest county in Virginia with an estimated population of 391,621 as of March 2009. Along with the population growth, the demographics of the community have also changed dramatically, fueled by a rush of immigration, both legal and illegal. In 1990, 4.5 percent of the county identified as Hispanic. That number more than quadrupled to 19.1 percent in 2006.

In the mid ‘90s, many residents were shocked and discouraged by a series of hate crimes. A business owned by Koreans was burned and a Jewish family had a swastika seared into their lawn. These events, coupled with the changing community profile, prompted some church members to organize a series of community meetings meant to allow residents to share their own stories and respond to the issues of intolerance and racism. These meetings grew into a community-wide event called “Celebrating Diversity” held at a local high school. The program drew 600 people that day to hear speakers trained by the Anti-Defamation League, discuss to issues in break-out groups and view the documentary film, “Not in our Town.”

The national nonprofit Not in Our Town again became involved in the Prince William County community after a Mexican day laborer, Serafin Negrete, was murdered in September 2006. NIOT produced a four-minute film that focused on the hardships and racism faced by immigrants in Prince William County. It also highlighted the efforts of Unity in the Community, a faith-based group of concerned citizens trying to promote tolerance and love.

Today, the conversation about diversity is ongoing as the community continues to struggle to embrace its changing identity.

In March 2010, the twenty-third decennial U.S. Census will be taken. But what does this mean for a community, like Prince William County in Virginia, that has a very high population of illegal immigrants? Even though Census workers take a lifetime oath to protect the confidentiality of all information gathered, should undocumented people trust them and fill out the forms?

Among the Latino community, opinions are varied as to the safety of allowing themselves to be counted. Churches, too, are split between encouraging their Hispanic members to participate as a civic duty or to shun the Census. Long before the 2010 Census was being discussed, controversial local ordinances affecting illegal immigrants created distrust between them and the government. Those laws allowed police officers to check the immigration status of people arrested for minor offenses and deport them if they lacked documentaiotn. As a result, the Latino community has its doubts that the Census is for their own good.